Part 4

Willow wearily closed yet another book that didn't have a cause for an aging body. She rose from the chair and turned to stretch her aching muscles.

"Holy poop!"

Xander blinked at Willow's interruption, "What? What's wrong?!"

Willow looked from the clock to her watch, "Is that the time?"

He opened his eyes wide and looked at Willow like she was insane, "Yes? Why?"

"I gotta go, my shift starts soon." Willow said while she gathered her belongings. "Tell Giles I'll call as soon as I hear about the autopsy. Hopefully this won't be supernaturally related."

Xander shuddered at the thought of cutting into dead bodies and grabbed another book. "And what are the odds of this being normal?"

~~~~

Nick sat at the computer waiting for the fingerprints he lifted from the scene to match. He had drawn the short straw so here he was sitting in the lab while Warrick was interviewing the employees of Caesar's that last had contact with the victim. He had been a high roller and stayed in a comp room. He hated this part, the waiting for the computer to do its job. He'd much rather be DOING something.

The click of the lab door broke his wandering thoughts and a bright smile spread across his face as he saw it was the rookie, Willow.

"Hey. You draw the short straw, too?" Nick asked with a smile.

"And here I thought it was a rookie thing that Grissom put me on the database detail."  Willow smiled back as she reached to turn on the other open computer.

"Oh it is, if a rookie is here otherwise the short straw gets it. Have you got the autopsy report on that weird victim yet?"

"Not yet. I think Grissom went to put a priority on it."

A soft beep sounded from Nick's computer and he spun around, "I'll be damned."

Willow got up to look over his shoulder, "Match?"

Printed on the computer screen is 'Print Match: James Mitchell'.

Nononononono. Willow silently cursed the fates. Maybe it was a different James Mitchell. Really, there had to be at least dozens of James Mitchells in the Vegas area, probably hundreds visiting.

Willow went over to her computer and pulled out a slide, "Ummm, could you run this against what you just found?"

Nick raised an eyebrow, "Gonna tell me why?"

"Nope, rather not until I see the outcome."

Nick turned back around and slid the specimen in the scanner and let the program compare the two sets of scans.

The computer beeped and on the screen was, 'Print match: 99.8%'.

Willow sighed and hung her head. Really what were the odds? Now not only did she have to worry about her case being supernaturally connected but she also had Catherine's pawnshop robbery and now it seemed Nick and Warrick's homicide. The icing on the cake would be Sara's MIA at the airport.

Nick swiveled in his chair and looked at Willow with his arms crossed waiting.

"Well?"

"Well from the comparison you just ran I'd have to say that my young-old victim was in your victim's comp room at some point."

Before Nick could comment Greg stuck his head in the room, "Willow? Grissom's looking for you. He wants you down at the autopsy room."

Willow looked back at her own computer comparison running and Nick motioned her to go, "Go on, I'll watch it for you since its kind of part of my case now, too."

Greg smirked at Nick who was ignoring him. Willow smiled her thanks as she followed Greg out of the room.

"Need me to show you how to get there?" Greg asked when he noticed the lost look on Willow's face.

She wrinkled her nose at him, "I kinda wasn't paying attention when I went down there yesterday. Too nervous."

Greg held out his arm for her to take, "It'll be my pleasure to escort such a lovely young woman."

"Cut the crap, Greg." Sara said from the doorway. "Don't you have my DNA to run?"

Greg let go of Willow's arm and winked, "I'm in such demand from the pretty ladies." He put extra swagger in his walk as he turned to go back to the lab.

Sara rolled her eyes and turned back to Willow, "Need help finding the autopsy room?"

 "Probably not a good thing to admit that I didn't pay attention yesterday."

Sara smiled, "Don't worry, my first day on the job out of the academy I was so determined to prove to the guys that I could do anything. I wouldn't admit I didn't know where the ballistics room was. I ended up being ten minutes late for a meeting. Haven't been able to live that down yet. Still have a reputation for being late."

She pointed down the hallway, "It's just down this hallway to the end, make a right and the second hallway on your left leads right to it. If this is your homicide from last night let me know what you find out. It's been bugging me how a seemingly healthy young male could age so much on the outside."

"S-sure. Well, thanks."

Willow quickly made her way to the forensics' autopsy room. Dr. Robbins smiled as Willow grabbed gloves and made her way over to where he and Grissom were standing.

"Greg said you wanted to see me?"

"I thought you should be here for this. Alfred why don't you tell Willow what you just told me?"

"If I didn't know any better I would have to conclude that all forensic evidence points to James Mitchell being in his early to mid seventies."

Willow's eyes widened. "Bone density, teeth and DNA?"

Gil gave a small smile while Alfred openly smiled at Gil, "I like her. Not only cute but smart too." He turned back to Willow, "I checked the teeth and the bone density. It matches that of an older man. The DNA sample is being matched with hair fibers found at the scene to determine if this is indeed James Mitchell and not an older relative."

Willow's mind was racing with about a million questions and ninety percent of those questions dealt with hellmouth-y stuff. "S-so, any idea why this guy's aging process sped up?"

Alfred cleared his throat, "Well actually I was thinking of doing research on that if the DNA matched. I'm unofficially ruling it natural causes until I can research it further. But I don't know of any way you can artificially age a person to cause their death."

"Genetic scientists are making progress on isolating specific genes. I have a friend that works in a genetic thinktank maybe I'll give him a call and see if he's heard anything about this. I'm sure he'd be interested anyway." Gil said as he motioned for Willow to follow him. "Thanks, Alfred. I'll let you know what I find out."